Well, folks, I am very sorry to hear about what happened in Californina.
But smashing Pat isn't going to change a thing but make an already upset
person more upset and hurting.  We were not in their shoes, so we cannot
say why they had ferrets "out in the open." Maybe we would have done the
same thing.  Maybe not.  Bottom line, we DON'T know.
 
Nonviolent protest is not a bad thing.  Violence is bad.  Breaking
someone's door down to get to a few fuzzy animals is a bad thing.  Come
on folks.  There wasn't a meth lab in there or anything, no was there a
suspected serial killer hiding in the bathtub.
 
Yes, the law is the law.  No argument.  But bad laws can and should be
changed.  And it takes courageous people to change them.
 
As for the person with the unaltered ferrets and was interested in
breeding.  I applaud those of you who responded nicely to her.  You know,
when I was first "new to ferrets" and didn't know ANYTHING at all (and what
I still don't know would fill volumes.  That's why when I'm regarded an
"expert" here I have to laugh.  Many of you are "experts." Not me......) I
thought I wanted to breed.  They were so cute and I thought it would be
fun.  I had some experience breeding Dachshunds when I was younger with
my mother and my husband had bred show Dobermans.  Many times, new people
think it's the same with ferrets.  I learned it's not.  Thanks to the info
here, from kind people, and the info in Modern Ferret, I learned I didn't
want to go there.  But if I had been flamed, I would have ran off into the
sunset and missed a lot of info that helps my ferrets and other ferrets,
and not met my bestest friend.
 
Giving people the info in a "good" way is better than flaming them for what
they don't know.  Face it.  We all were "newbies" at one time or another,
weren't we?  None of us were just born with the knowledge as a genetic
imprint, were we?  Didn't think so folks.
 
I know these both are sensitive topics.  But we can give knowledge kindly.
Or voice disapproval kindly.
 
I guess where I'm going with this is something that I read in one of Millie
Sanders posts a while back.  "I haven't mentioned this because I was
embarrassed........." about Ammonia's disappearance (and I am very probably
misquoting you Millie, and for that I apologize).  Why should any one of us
be ashamed or embarrassed to post something that has happened?  Unless it
was out and out cruelty or neglect
(the-I-put-my-ferret-in-a-major-appliance-to-see-what-would-happen or the
I-let-my-ferret-sit-in-the-cage-for-God-knows-how-long-with-hardly-any-food
-water-and-never-cleaned-it-once kind) things HAPPEN.
 
I will share a non ferret related incident to try to illustrate what I
mean.  In March, my 16 year old testosterone poisoned son, Andy, wrecked
our little red pick up.  (Misjudged distance and got plowed by a Suburban
who's driver wasn't looking either.........) Luis, my husband, was really
pretty hard on him I thought.  The
how-could-you-do-that-I-knew-it-was-going-to-happen thing.
(We've all said that before.  At least I have.......) Wouldn't let him
drive the car or anything after that.  (He was grateful, BTW, that Andy
wasn't hurt.........)  Well, Tuesday night, Luis had it happen to him.  He
was out in the van, not paying attention or misjudged or whatever, ran up
over the curb at a pretty good clip and bent the A-frame and trashed a
control arm on my pride-and-joy minivan.  I was sick.  But I was able to
control myself, thank God.  All I said was "See, it can happen to the best
of us.  Obviously you didn't do it on purpose.  Neither did Andy......" (I
then went up and took a tranquilizer and cried, but.......) Well, Luis and
his friend Hugo, with the help of an ascetaline torch, got it fixed (except
for the alignment.........) and running.  Next morning, when it was time
for my oldest daughter to go to work, Luis walked up to Andy and handed him
the keys to the pickup.  "Andy, take your sister to work, will you?" (Val
can't drive sticks, just as an aside, and all our vehicles are sticks.)
Andy almost fell over.  "Are you sure, Luis?" Dead silence in the kitchen.
"Yes, Andy.  Accident's happen, don't they?  You be careful.  And I will
try too."
 
Let's just remember that sometimes things seem like good ideas at the time,
and later you see they really weren't.  Experience and knowledge is the
key.  And if we can't turn to each other for tapping into that experience
and knowledge here, where the Hell can we folks?  The California Fish and
Gestapo?  I think not!
 
Be nice to each other and your babies.  Life is short.
 
Catherine, Pato, Snowball, Hubert, and Elsie
"Their up on Their Soapbox Behind The Zion Curtain Again.........."
[Posted in FML issue 2737]